Felix and the Crimson Silence
by fyxyuc
Summary: With the war against the Empire, and tragedy striking, Felix's life keeps getting worse. But when a mysterious being appears and wants to help Felix, his life and mindset will be changed, along with everyone else's. WARNING: Lots of character death and death in general, and some minor shipping, other than Felix X Annette which is the crux of the story.


**Authors note: Hello, everyone! This will be my first multi-chapter fic. I hope to upload at least one chapter a month, but we all know that life has a tendency to get in the way. **

**A quick thing to note is that this will be kind of a strange fic. It's not set in any of Three Houses regular paths, instead it's more of a mixture of the Azure Moon and Crimson Flower routes. More will be explained as the fic goes on. This fic will also have a lot of character death. If you go in expecting a standard shipping fic, you're in for a surprise. I hope this won't scare any of you off, and at any rate, enjoy the story!**

_Swish, thwack. Swish, thwack._

Those were the sounds Felix most liked to hear when he was training. The sound of his sword sailing through the air, followed by the impact it made on the training dummies. It didn't compare to the sounds of a real fight, with yelling and metal clangs instead, but Felix would take it.

He adjusted his stance and focused on the dummy in front of him, envisioning a foe charging at him with raised weapon. Felix drew back his sword and swung as hard as he could at it. His sword connected neatly with the dummy's neck, severing its head in one blow.

Felix stood back and looked at his handiwork. The dummy's head had rolled into a corner. He felt a twinge of annoyance. The policy on dummy destruction at the training grounds was "You break it, you fix it." Felix had to get sewing lessons from Mercedes and Annette to fix all the damage he'd made back in their Officer's Academy days, and he really hoped it was a skill he hadn't lost in the last five years.

Felix decided to pack up. He couldn't ignore his growing hunger anymore, and the sun had almost set. He could get more training in tomorrow.

It was then that he heard a familiar voice behind him. "Hey, Felix! What are you still out here for?"

Felix turned around to see Sylvain walking up.

"Just finishing up here." he said, sheathing his sword and making a mental note to get it sharpened later. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you." Sylvain said. "And I'm not the only one. Annette also wants to know." He winked teasingly.

Felix decided not to react to the wink and passed Sylvain to exit the training grounds. Sylvain began following him.

"Annette's looking for me? Why?" Felix asked.

"I don't know. Probably engaged-couple stuff we single people couldn't hope to understand." Sylvain joked.

"Do you know where she is?" Felix said irritably.

"Uh, maybe the Main Hall?"

Felix decided dinner could wait. Finding what Annette wanted was more important. Unlike Sylvain, Felix preferred to let his actions show his care for his beloved, rather than showering her with flowery words and shiny gifts. He was really no good at that stuff anyway, the one time he had tried to write poetry for Annette (on Professor Manuela's advice, which he should have known better than to listen to), it had turned out so bad that Annette had nearly passed out from laughing so much. Felix cringed every time he remembered it.

Sylvain left in the opposite direction, leaving Felix to enter the Main Hall alone. He began looking around for Annette. Even in the crowds of people in there, it shouldn't be too hard to spot her.

Just then, Felix's efforts were rewarded when he heard a crashing noise followed by a shriek he had heard too many times to count. He turned to see Annette lying on the ground, having tripped over some badly placed barrels in the hallway she was walking down.

He walked up to her and held out a hand to help her up.

"Are you alright, Annie?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Annette said in embarrassment as he helped her up. "I need to start looking where I'm walking…"

Annette dusted herself off. Felix waited for her to regain her composure.

"So, you were looking for me?" he asked.

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Sylvain told me. Any particular reason?"

"Well, yes." Annette said. "I need to tell you something. But we can't do it here!"

"Alright, let's go to the Entrance Hall." Felix said.

"No, still too many people!" Annette exclaimed. Then she gasped. "I know! Let's go to the Star Terrace!"

"On the third floor? Is that really necessary?" Felix asked dryly.

"Yes-I mean no-I mean-just come on!" Annette grabbed Felix's hand and began dragging him to the stairs. Felix sighed internally at the thought of all those stairs and hoped that nobody else would be up there so they wouldn't have to climb back down.

The third floor was deserted. Felix let Annette lead him all the way out onto the Star Terrace. The name fit it well; the view of the night sky was glorious, with thousands of glittering stars and the rising crescent moon shining light on the towers of the monastery. A couple of torches provided some lighting.

"So, now that I've been dragged all the way up here, what is it that you wanted to tell me?" Felix asked Annette.

Annette took a deep breath and said "Felix, I-" then stopped mid-sentence.

Felix waited.

Annette started again. "Felix, I'm-" before stopping again and exclaiming "I-I can't do this!"

"Do what?"

"I didn't think this would be so hard to say!" Annette's face was turning red.

"Just spit it out!"

"I can't!"

"Well, is it a good thing, or a bad thing you're trying to say?" Felix demanded.

"I don't know! That's why I'm having such a hard time!"

"Just take a few deep breaths. Calm down." Felix told her. Annette took a few shaky breaths and after a moment, faced Felix.

"Alright. Alright, here goes." Annette readied herself before saying "Felix, you're going to be a father."

The only sounds for a few moments after that were the wind blowing and the crackling of the torches.

Felix thought he'd heard her wrong for a couple seconds. But when he saw her expression, he realized that wasn't the case. It was another few moments before he managed to form any words. "_What?_"

"I found out today. I'm three and a half months along." Annette gave a shaky smile.

Felix couldn't wrap his mind around this news. A father… he was going to be a father… Annette was pregnant… they were going to be parents…

"Wow." was all he could say. He had no clue how to feel about this.

Annette watched him nervously. It was a minute before she said anything. "I know, I couldn't wrap my head around it either when I found out. We were being careful, too…"

Felix was lost in thought. Annette's voice broke him out of his revery. "Felix?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you think?"

"I...don't really know." Felix admitted.

"I know, it's a huge shock. And it's really not a good time either. I mean, there's a war encompassing all of Fodlan that will go on for Goddess-knows how long, and we're right in the middle of that war. And even without the war, we're so young, and we don't even have plans to get married yet, and I know we were going to wait a long, long time before starting a family, and you-"

She was cut off by Felix taking her hands in his own. "I know. We have a lot to think about."

Annette sighed. "We're not ready for this."

"No. But we'll have to get ready."

Annette leaned into Felix's arms and they stood there quietly for a while, both pondering what direction their lives were going to take.

"So, what now?" Felix forced his thoughts into where they would go from here.

"I gave some thought this afternoon." Annette said. "I don't think we should tell anyone for a little while yet, okay? I want to help in the war, for just a while longer."

Felix's face must have shown his dislike of the idea, because Annette quickly said "It won't be a secret forever, and I'm not gonna put myself in danger! I just don't want to be a burden to anyone else, okay? I want to stay at Garreg Mach and help, even if I won't be on the front lines."

Felix stared down into Annette's sky-blue eyes, and knew this was important to her. Despite his misgivings, he said "Okay."

Annette smiled back and whispered "Thank you."

They were interrupted by a very loud growling noise. Felix panicked for a moment before realizing it was just his empty stomach voicing it's displeasure. Annette realized the same and started laughing. "By the Goddess Felix, I thought that was a Demonic Beast for a couple seconds!" Her laughter was music to Felix's ears.

"Have you eaten since lunch?"

"Well, I was going to the dining hall when you found me." said Felix with a smile.

"You need food. I'll join you." They started walking to the stairs.

On the way, Annette said quietly "We need to talk about this more… but not right now. I think we both need some time to get used to the idea of… you know."

Felix agreed, and as they headed in the direction of the dining hall, he slipped his hand into his fiance's own.


End file.
